InMarketing Today

Andrew Bailey warned today that the “groundswell of populist politics” threatens central bank independence and the ability of central banks to protect the long-term interests of the global economy. Speaking in London, the Bank of England governor accused populist parties on both extremes of trying to exert increasing influence over monetary authorities, citing the now-dropped US Department of Justice investigation into the Federal Reserve during Donald Trump's campaign against Jay Powell, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's removal of Turkish central bank governors, and moves in Hungary and India to undermine their own central banks.

Bailey framed this explicitly as a trust problem, not a technical one. Central banks, he said, are among several institutions — alongside courts, universities and regulators — that “derive authority through forms of democratic delegation,” and that authority holds only as long as the public trusts it. Any institution whose authority rests on delegated trust is vulnerable the moment a determined opponent recasts it as, in Bailey's words, “an unrepresentative elite standing between the people and their will.” That is a communications attack as much as a political one.

If your organisation's credibility depends on independence, expertise or a mandate the public granted it, say so explicitly, and keep demonstrating why it is earned. Bailey's speech is itself a case study: an institution stepping out to make the argument for its own legitimacy before an opponent makes the opposite case first.

Anthropic has launched a blueprint that lets retailers build their own AI shopping agents on Claude, in partnership with Visa, Mastercard and Accenture. Using a new code plugin, merchants can build agents that search their catalogue, remember customer preferences, build the cart and answer queries on the shopping side, and recommend pricing and promotions, track inventory and analyse sales performance on the merchant side. Shopify and Priceline are already running live versions.

The most striking claim came from Accenture's Kath Gramling, who cited research finding that 85% of consumers are now open to an AI agent shopping on their behalf, and that nearly three in four would trust a personal AI agent more than their best friend to make a purchase for them. Visa's Jack Forestell was blunter about what that means for brands: merchants, he said, “want more control over how AI engages their customers.” When an algorithm decides what gets shown, compared and recommended, the brand relationship shifts from persuading a person to being legible to an agent — and most marketing organisations aren't built for that yet.

Start testing whether your product information, pricing logic and customer data are structured well enough for an AI agent to represent your brand accurately and favourably. If Gramling's numbers hold, agents will increasingly be doing the browsing your marketing was built to influence directly.

Ferrari's flagship London boutique on Old Bond Street — three floors of what was once a De Beers jewellery store — sells women's ready-to-wear, a customisable car-shaped clutch bag, and a set of Michael Schumacher's old racing overalls for £42,250, FT Alphaville's Bryce Elder reports. Logo T-shirts start at £170. A New York store follows later this year. On a weekday morning visit, Elder was the only customer in the building.

Ferrari has spent since 2019 buying merchandising rights back from licensees specifically to protect the brand, and the strategy behind the shop is brand elevation rather than profit — Elder notes the business “is certain to be burning money on retail.” That is defensible in principle: a trademark this strong is worth protecting from cheap knock-offs. The problem is that nobody, Elder included, can say who the customer actually is. A brand extension without a defined buyer isn't ambition, it's expensive guesswork wearing very good tailoring.

Test that question before you scale it. A store or product line built to “elevate the brand” needs an answer to who walks through the door and why, argued with the same rigour you'd apply to a paying product line — not just a budget for how much prestige-spend you're willing to absorb.